Amidst the chaos of January 6 there was a moment, which ABC reporter Jonathan Karl described in his book “Betrayal” depicting Mike Pence’s evacuation to an underground loading dock. According to Karl, Pence twice refused to get into his 20-car motorcade for fear that the visual of him leaving the Capitol would only worsen the situation. Later it was revealed that Pence also feared a conspiracy amongst the Secret Service to aid Trump in the insurrection that day.
That was one hell of a day. I’m not much of a Mike Pence sympathizer but I can only imagine how it must have felt to fear assassination by a mob on the one hand and a conspiracy/kidnapping by the Secret Service on the other. Such are the wages of sin, which in this case is defined as throwing in your lot with Donald Trump. If Pence ever expected that serving Trump would end any other way than badly, he was naive.
Now, in a trial to go forward this Monday, Cowboys for Trump leader, Couy Griffin, will argue that Pence’s evacuation to a secure location took him off of Capitol grounds — and outside a Secret Service perimeter established to protect Pence — ergo Griffin broke no law. The judge in this matter has given Griffin a green light to grill the Secret Service on this point but its doubtful that they will give the requested information due to the fact that it could compromise safety protocols pertaining to Kamala Harris and other vice presidents in the future. Politico:
Prosecutors, who have charged Griffin with breaching a Secret Service-protected zone, say the argument is nonsense. Not only was Pence within the Capitol complex for the duration of the riot, they say, but it wouldn’t matter if he left, since the trespassing law he’s charged with only requires that Pence intended to return.
Griffin’s case has become an important test for the Justice Department, with potential ramifications for hundreds of those charged with “entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds” on Jan. 6, a misdemeanor that carries a one-year maximum jail sentence. If U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden decides Pence’s precise location matters, it could echo across many of the nearly 800 cases stemming from the insurrection.
Prosecutors have repeatedly emphasized that the law only requires that Pence was or “would be” returning to the Secret Service zone to prove Griffin’s crime. They recently amended the language of the charges to emphasize that point.
In addition, prosecutors say that Secret Service witnesses will refuse to disclose Pence’s precise location — even if called to the witness stand — because it could jeopardize national security protocols for the current vice president, Kamala Harris, and her successors.
“[T]his information is so sensitive and important to the security of Secret Service protectees that any Secret Service witness who testifies in this case will not answer any questions about the precise location of the emergency relocation site to which the Vice President was taken on January 6, 2021,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar said in a Thursday court filing.
This is such a lot of hooey. Politico is reporting that there will be debates as to the precise definition of the Capitol, the Capitol grounds, things of that nature, when the simple fact is, “Griffin spent over an hour perched on the front railing of the inaugural stage being filmed by Struck,” DOJ argues. “During this time, Griffin joined those around him in chanting ‘We . . . the people!,’ and later shouted through a bullhorn, waiving [sic] his arms and asking the crowd below to kneel and listen as he led them in prayer.”
Griffin’s actions were that of a terrorist. He broke into the Capitol. Arguing fine points of location isn’t going to change that and it’s unfair to the Secret Service to entrust them with protecting a head of state and then being asked to give testimony which would endanger future heads of state.
This Monday trial is shaping up to be a real farce.
It doesn’t matter where Pence was in the building or not – he was in the Capitol complex, somewhere, and didn’t trust the SS guys enough to leave with them.
That’s exactly right. That’s opposing counsel’s argument and that is the way it will come out in the wash, with respect to the location matter. I don’t even know why this is an issue.
Pence not trusting the Secret Service is pretty heavy. I thought so at the time and still do.
There were rumblings when Obama became President. And despite furious attempts to keep it quiet there were issues with then candidate Biden’s detail. I think now that he’s President and has a detail with lots of people from his years as VP that he knows he can trust he’s secure. But the Pence business exposes a horrifying aspect of the Secret Service that most don’t want to think about. Historically LE from local cops to the federal level have tended to have conservative beliefs and voting habits, but at the federal level (with exceptions of course) they have a history of putting duty first regardless of personal political leanings. The Secret Service in the wake of JFK’s assassination did some hard self-reflection and the need to transform itself was reinforced in 1968. They didn’t just get their shit together but became elite.
So what changed? Prior to the hysteria (and much of the country flat-out panicked & elected officials in large numbers weren’t immune) after 911 the Secret Service was removed from the Treasury Department and placed in DHS, subjecting it to more politics than had been the case. And selection of who would become part of it and those protection details certainly slipped. The Secret Service has been on a steady decline ever since it was moved to DHS. It was once unthinkable they would be anything but truly elite and go to extremes to ensure the safety of protectees. Yet it’s become clear that they no longer deserve that measure of trust and respect.
Ask Mike?